MP Eric Joyce arrested and suspended from Labour party over House of Commons brawl

Eric Joyce, the Labour MP for Falkirk, has been arrested by police and suspended from the Labour Party allegedly headbutting another MP in a row over chairs in a bar of the House of Commons.

Police were called to the Strangers’ Bar in the House of Commons just before 11pm last night.

Mr Joyce, 51, was arrested on suspicion of assault and taken to a police station in central London. Today he was suspended from the Labour party.

It was claimed Mr Joyce “started lashing out” at people in the bar, which is for MPs and their guests.

One of his alleged victims was reported to be Conservative MP Stuart Andrew. He was also alleged to have hit as many as three Labour MPs.

Mr Andrew was left with a bloody nose and is understood to want to press charges.

A witness told PoliticsHome that Mr Joyce allegedly pushed a Conservative member before punching others at the back of the bar.

Mr Joyce is said to have arrived in at the bar at 10pm and complained it was “full of Tories”.

He was said to have “flipped” when he was asked to stop singing and dancing.

“He seemed to have had a lot to drink and was asked to quiet down,” one witness told the Evening Standard. “Then he flipped. It was not really a brawl or a fight, he just flipped. He then started lashing out.”

“Poor Stuart was just having a quiet pint and minding his own business and Eric headbutted him. Stuart was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Conservative MP Jackie Doyle-Price stepped between Mr Joyce and the fracas, calming him, before he allegedly returned and struck Mr Andrew a second time.

The commotion took place in front of a delegation from the Canadian parliament including Andrew Scheer, its speaker.

Mr Joyce was restrained by security officers and handcuffed.

A glass window on the corridor near the bar was found broken this morning.

Conservative MP Margot James said she had spoken to Mr Andrew this morning.

“He’s ok, I’m glad to say. He told me that there were quite a few people in the bar. There was some dispute over chairs.”

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “We were called at approximately 10.50pm last night to reports of a disturbance at a bar within the House of Commons.

“A man aged in his fifties was arrested by officers on suspicion of assault.”

A witness told PoliticsHome that Mr Joyce allegedly pushed a Conservative member before punching others at the back of the bar.

Mr Joyce is said to have arrived in at the bar at 10pm and complained it was “full of Tories”.

He was said to have “flipped” when he was asked to stop singing and dancing.

“He seemed to have had a lot to drink and was asked to quiet down,” one witness told the Evening Standard. “Then he flipped. It was not really a brawl or a fight, he just flipped. He then started lashing out.”

“Poor Stuart was just having a quiet pint and minding his own business and Eric headbutted him. Stuart was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”